The Tracker- The 43 Hunger Games

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I wake up to the anthem ringing in my ears. No one died today. With so few of us around, it's not surprising.

"Have you gone through the feast backpacks?" I ask.

"I have. It's a lot of stuff for water. Rafts, fresh water, food, ropes, and some other random things."

"I wonder why? Both backpacks have rafts in them?"

"Yep."

"Are you tired Talon?"

"A little, how about you?"

"I'm fine. I can remember almost everything now, too."

"That's great. How are your cuts?"

He has me lift the back of my shirt so he can check. He presses lightly on the gauze that's covering the cut. I make a slight noise of discomfort.

"Still sore, huh?"

"A little. It's not unbearable. My hand is pretty sore though."

He unwraps my hand and checks it over. I'm extremely lucky that it didn't pierce the whole way through. Her arrow didn't hit me at full speed and I'm thankful for that.

"Umm... Talon!" I say in shock.

"What is something wrong? Did I hurt you?"

"No, the water is rising fast. Look."

He turns to face the ocean. As he stares at it, I start to open the backpack from the feast. I'm glad I decided to go to that feast, otherwise we would be completely out of luck. I inflate the raft and toss our stuff in. The water is rising rapidly now.

Talon climbs into the raft and helps me in. The water quickly rises and we start to float. It is increasing at an alarming rate, and, on top of that, it's starting to rain. Our beautiful and calm beach has quickly turned into a place of terror.

The rafts have a little dome over them to keep water out. It's a good thing they do since it's raining so heavily that I can barely hear. The waves are starting to get extremely rough.

They're like jagged teeth waiting and wanting to bite down and swallow us into the abyss. The waves are violently rocking the boat. All of the swaying makes my stomach turn.

"How are you feeling?" Talon yells.

I know it must be very evident that I'm about to lose my stomach, but I lie anyway. "Umm... I feel a little sick, but I'll be fine. I think. How are you?" My voice comes out unsteady and it's barely audible.

"I'm alright. Why don't you come here?" He motions for me to come and sit beside him.

I try to move, but it's too hard. Plus it makes me feel worse.

"I can't." I'm starting to feel really sick and. when I start gagging, Talon comes over to me instead. He pulls me close to him and I lean my head on his shoulder. He rests his head on top of mine and quietly hums to me. I eventually fall asleep.

I'm startled awake by Talon yelling and panicking.

"What's going on?" I ask frantically. I see water quickly filling the raft.

"Both of the rafts popped sometime throughout the night. I'm not sure how. I fell asleep and woke up to see water flowing into the raft."

"What are we going to do? I can't swim, Talon." I start to hyperventilate. I've never swum before. There's nowhere to swim in District 1. I don't even like taking baths because I really hate water. If I can avoid a higher chance of drowning, then I do. Unfortunately, I have no choice. Right now, it's swim or die. I better hope I can learn fast.

"It's okay. I know how to swim. I can keep you afloat."

He calms me down a little, but I'm still worried. We sit there, and Talon waits for me to decide. I start to twist pieces of my hair. Only Kenner understands what this means, he knows how scared I am.

"Come on Althaea, we need to get out of the raft and into the water." Talon pronounces as he pulls my hands away from my face. "Ready?"

I draw in a ragged breath, "I guess so."

He puts his arm around my waist and holds me tight. "Close your eyes and plug your nose." As soon as he tells me this, he jumps.

Once my body is entirely submerged, I panic. My mouth immediately opens and I try to breath. I can't feel Talon holding onto me anymore, which only causes me to panic more. I try my hardest to swim upward, but I can't tell which way is up, I don't even know how to swim. I flail my arms and legs in hopes of getting somewhere. The salty water continues to make its way into my mouth. I'm running out of air. My vision is slowly fading to black.

I can feel something pull me upward and I hear, "Are you okay? Breathe, you're above water." He has his arm tightly around me.

With a gasp, I open my eyes and start coughing. Talon hands me something orange.

"Here, put this on. It will keep you above water."

When I put it on, I immediately feel more relaxed, even though the waves are still rough.

"We need to get to land, Talon. I can't stay in the water."

"Where are we going to go?"

I scan the arena. I can't tell where anything is, or used to be. My eyes fall upon a mountain about three miles out. The water is up to the middle of it, which leads me to believe that this is our only option.

"The mountain," I say.

"It's going to involve a lot of swimming, can you do it? I don't want you to push yourself too hard."

"I can do it. Do you have the rest of our supplies?"

"Actually I do. I have your bow and arrows and my backpack." He holds them up in response.

We start swimming to the mountain. The waves are making it hard for me to swim, although Talon seems to be having no problems. We've been swimming for almost an hour, and it doesn't feel like we've made it any closer. I'm getting mentally and physically worn out. The warmth of the water only makes it harder to be alert. It's so warm now that it stopped raining.

"How are you doing?" Talon calls back to me.

"I'm getting tired. Is it possible for us to stop for a while?"

"Sure. Try floating on your back and relaxing. Close your eyes."

I look at him with uncertainty. I've never been in an ocean before and I'm not really sure how to float on my back.

"It's okay, trust me."

He keeps his hand on my back as I float. The waves eventually calm down and gently rock me like a mother would her new born child.